1. Field
This disclosure is generally related to retail fitting room systems. More specifically, this disclosure is related to a method and apparatus that determines consumer shopping behavior.
2. Related Art
Shopping for clothes, jewelry, or other wearable items is a common activity which can be carried out either online or in physical stores. A common practice in a physical store is to search the inventory for items of interest, select a few for comparison, and try them on to decide which, if any, to purchase. A consumer evaluates the wearable items according to how well they fit physically, and also how well they fit the image of herself that she wants others to perceive. That is, the consumer not only checks whether a garment fits her body, but also whether it fits her style.
Retailers typically attempt to gather consumer buying behavior using point-of-sale (POS) data. Specifically, these retailers monitor the merchandise items purchased by consumers to determine their shopping preferences. The POS data allows retailers to determine what products to sell to their consumers, and to determine how to run their business more effectively.
Unfortunately, POS data captures consumer behavior information only when merchandise items are purchased by consumers. This prevents POS data from capturing consumer shopping behavior that happens before a consumer purchases a merchandise item. Furthermore, POS data is also not capable of capturing a great deal of consumer shopping behavior for merchandise items that are seldom purchased by consumers.